Heat transfer and flow characteristics of a cooling thimble in a molten salt reactor residual heat removal system

Autor: Zonghao Yang, Zhaoming Meng, Changqi Yan, Kailun Chen
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Vol 49, Iss 8, Pp 1617-1628 (2017)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1738-5733
DOI: 10.1016/j.net.2017.07.026
Popis: In the passive residual heat removal system of a molten salt reactor, one of the residual heat removal methods is to use the thimble-type heat transfer elements of the drain salt tank to remove the residual heat of fuel salts. An experimental loop is designed and built with a single heat transfer element to analyze the heat transfer and flow characteristics. In this research, the influence of the size of a three-layer thimble-type heat transfer element on the heat transfer rate is analyzed. Two methods are used to obtain the heat transfer rate, and a difference of results between methods is approximately 5%. The gas gap width between the thimble and the bayonet has a large effect on the heat transfer rate. As the gas gap width increases from 1.0 mm to 11.0 mm, the heat transfer rate decreases from 5.2 kW to 1.6 kW. In addition, a natural circulation startup process is described in this paper. Finally, flashing natural circulation instability has been observed in this thimble-type heat transfer element.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals